LAFC seek to break Mexican grip on Concacaf Champions League against Tigres UANL

December 21 – Tigres UANL and Los Angeles FC will close off Concacaf’s disrupted 2020 competition season with the final of 2020 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League on Tuesday (December 22).

Conacaf restarted its Champions League at the quarter final stage last Tuesday with all matches centralised at Orlando’s Exploria Stadium.

On Saturday Mexico’s Tigres UANL beat CD Olimpia of Honduras 3-0 to qualify for the single leg final. It was the first time the Hondurans had made it this far in the competition whilst UANL were competing for a fourth Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League final in five years.

UANL have lost all their three previous appearances in the final to other teams from LigaMX. On Tuesday they will face different opposition in the form of Bob Bradley-led LAFC, who will be seeking to break the Mexican lock on this competition. Mexican clubs have win every edition of the Champions League era that began in 2008.

LAFC came from behind to beat Mexican giants Club America 3-1 with Carlos Vela scoring two goals in the first two minutes of the second half. Club America were last winners in 2015-16 – beating UANL in the two-legged final.

The 2020 final will be played over a single leg with the winners qualifying for the first of next year’s two Club World Cups in Qatar in February.

It is the fourth time that a team from MLS has reached the SCCL Final. The last time was in 2018, when Toronto FC lost to CD Guadalajara.

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